Ans Verdijk: Home, Memory, and the Art of Dwelling

A profile of Dutch artist Ans Verdijk, whose life and work are deeply intertwined with her childhood home in Beugen. In December 2025, Museum Alarm opened an exhibition titled 'De jonge jaren' focusing on her early biography, an unusual approach for an artist. Verdijk lives in the house where she was born and raised, now a private museum filled with her sculptures, drawings, and installations. Her work is characterized by an abundance of materials—papier-mâché, fabric, lace, silver paper—in soft pastel colors, often described as 'baroque' but with a fragile, unsettling edge. She cites Mike Kelley as an influence. The article explores her difficult childhood: growing up in a tense household with her mother and grandmother, attending boarding school at age twelve, and feeling like an outsider upon return. She later studied at the academy in 's-Hertogenbosch, influenced by Krijn Giezen. Verdijk now runs two art spaces: Museum van Alle Tijden, a roadside chapel-like structure inspired by feed silos, and Museum Alarm, a former fruit and calf barn showing other artists' work. Her studio remains closed to visitors, though artist Joep Vossebelt once transferred its contents to Odapark. The exhibition 'De jonge jaren' was curated by artists Moorman and Siwek.